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Language Log » English adjectives as adverbs?

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Some of the comments on " Filthy comfortable " (10/9/2026) related to the issue of an adjective being used as an adverbial intensifier, which is a fairly common though always irregular development.

We can start with very , for which Wiktonary gives the etymology

From Middle English verray , from Old French verai (“true”), from Early Medieval Latin vērāgus , from Classical Latin vērāx , derived from vērus , from Proto-Italic *wēros , from Proto-Indo-European *weh₁ros .

According to the OED, the purely intensive adverbial use of very developed in the 16th-17th centuries.

The page on real from Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage starts like this:

The adverb real , which is used only as an intensifier, developed from a use of the adjective to modify compound noun phrases like good turn . By the 18th century the real was apprehended as an intensifier modifying good alone, and its independent use grew from then.…

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